Stone centre offers peek into pre-historic Peak

DERBYSHIRE visitors can get a glimpse into the county’s pre-historic past with examples of features dating back more than 300 million years.

The National Stone Centre, just outside Wirksworth, which cover a 40 acres and includes six former limestone quarries, boasts fossils of sea creatures which once called the Peak District their home.

“It’s really, really weird to think that if we were stood here 330million years ago, we’d be swimming – we’d be in a shallow sea somewhere near the equator,” says

Julian Smallshaw, who’s a trustee of the National Stone Centre and head of education at the Institue of Quarrying.

He was also able to confirm that Matlock Bath, known as the “town by the sea without the sea”, did have a coastline to speak of all years ago.

The National Stone Centre doesn’t quite date back as far as its fossils: it opened in 1990, three decades after the last of its quarries was mined for the stone and rock – but those mines unearthed some remarkable features, including those sea creatures’s fossils and even a line of ash running across the rock which came from a volcanic eruption.

However, as Julian says, the National Stone Centre offers more than just a walk around looking at rocks. A new partnership with the Institute of Quarrying has allowed them to move the centre to the next level.

“There’s two sides to the NSC there’s the leisure activities side where people are coming in for something to eat or play on the playground or walk around the woods and the sites and then there’s the other side which is the training and education side, bringing the industry here, maintaining standards and bringing standards up”.

The centre, which borders the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway and the High Peak Trail, attracts thousands of schoolchildren and offers visitors a chance to try their hand at a bit of dry stone walling, pan for gems, go on Geo walks and fossil trails.

The main attractions are the limestone quarries, which have, as Julian says, uncovered some amazing finds which would’ve stayed buried if it wasn’t for the impact of industry and the need to dig deep into the landscape: “You’ll find disused quarries harbour the most fantastic flora and fauna and even in working quarries you have nesting peregrine falcons; it is a harbour for wildlife and a fantastic habitat”.

The Stone Centre is also the home of the National Collection for Building Stones, which proves useful for people who want to know where a certain stone comes from so they can match it for their housing extension or the keep their new home in keeping with the local surroundings.

Admission to the centre is free.